Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Cool Kitchen Product: Kitchen Laptop Stand

I have developed the habit of printing out recipes from my laptop computer that I find online or that I have seen on cooking shows, typically on 8 1/2 by 11" white paper. However, a moment of inspiration or desire, or which there are many, can contribute to an ever-growing stack of printed recipes, only organized into two piles: recipes that have been tried, and recipes that have yet to be tried. Some recipes may be stuck into a binder that my mom started for me in college; this binder contained family recipes inserted into plastic protective sheets, with extra sheets for me to add my own recipes in the future. Great in theory, but for an inspired cook, this binder can become overstuffed and unorganized quickly!

It is great to have the recipe in hand, to be able to bring it into the kitchen and stick it into my plastic cookbook stand, so I can have it right in front of me while I am making it. But what do I do after I am finished? What if I chose not to make it again, what should I do with the printed recipe? A person can only have so much scrap paper.

I have decided it would be best to develop a system to organize my recipes digitally on my laptop, eliminating the need to print out a single piece of paper. This system would save both time and money (no more wasted paper or expensive printer ink!). In addition to the digital recipes, high speed internet allows access to hundreds of short cooking videos. A few of my favorites are Everyday Food, MyRecipes (which includes Cooking Light), and Rachael Ray's clips from her daytime show (inserted into her recipes). A while back, I was making a Rachael Ray recipe that I had watched her make on TV and I specifically remembered her grating garlic into the pot. I stood in my kitchen peering at the recipe... no garlic listed among the ingredients. I walked over to my laptop, pulled up the video of her making the meal, and counted how many cloves of garlic she grated into the pot. A simple mistake in the recipe made me think: wouldn't it be great to be able to watch that video in the kitchen?

Computers have tried to invade the kitchen and organize your shopping list, maybe even do the shopping for you. But, where can a cook get a high tech computer for the kitchen, that organizes thousands of recipes and that will also play internet cooking videos? I own a laptop, and it's connected to the internet through a wireless router. Should I use my nice laptop in the kitchen and take the chance of getting a spill, or worse, sticky splatter on the keys? My laptop would have to be protected and remain splash proof. Was there a simple solution to my dilemma, perhaps a laptop stand that I could use in the kitchen? I needed a sleek, durable and easy to use kitchen laptop stand that is also easy to clean and store. Lo and behold, I found exactly that on Amazon! Now everyone can have one and have as much fun in the kitchen as I do. Keeping my recipes organized in the kitchen has been as much fun as watching videos as I cook. My Kitchen Laptop Stand also converts into a cookbook holder to hold a traditional cookbook.

Can you believe standard laptop computers may finally have a place in the kitchen? Perhaps the computer just needed a windshield. An organized cook is a happy cook!